chavala

Darlox

Gotta admit I'm still on the fence about the new process. But that could be because my most recent flights have been on "unusual" routes for me, so it might just be more-or-less business as usual on those, and I wouldn't really know.

* CLE-MCO: Insanely "families with children 2-" heavy, and so the gate area was just a mosh pit of wandering and crying kids, along with 1Ks and GS hanging out near~ish, but not quite in, the Group 1 Line, and still nobody could get through when the preboards were called because the Group 1 line (in CLE) ran right next to a pillar on the concourse. It was a zoo.

* FLL-EWR: For whatever reason, gate agent decided to board the flight a full 10 minutes early. They were on Group 3 before I even got to the gate (still 5 minutes prior to scheduled boarding time) from the temporary club location, and the Group 1 line had a pile-up of Pre-Group-3 pax, that they were trying to waffle-weave together with the Group 2 line pax, onto a jam-packed jetway.

But with some of my "usual" routes scattered in, where the process went smoothly, I think I'm still generally on the fence here. Under the 5-line model, everybody had a place to go to. Under the new model, one tour group standing around in the concourse, or the GA announcing groups too quickly or starting the boarding process early, and you suddenly have a snarl of everyone trying to be in the same place at the same time, with no great way to resolve that other than a single giant queue...

I think UA might be fighting an up-hill battle against human nature here. As everyone gets used to the new process, I think we're just going to see the core problem getting shoved ~15-feet away from the gate, as people no longer crowd into the boarding lanes, and now jockey for position near the entrance of the Group 2 (or 1) line, to be the first up the lane when their group is called. *shrug* No great solution here.

wxguy

I'm not sure if this belongs here or the DYKWIA thread, but here goes. Yesterday on ORD-BOS:
GA calls for passengers with disabilities. No takers.
GA calls for military. No takers.
GA calls for GS. I was hanging about 15 feet back, and walk leisurely towards the podium with one other behind me.
A pax barges out from the Group 1 line, cuts in front of me, and hands the GA his BP. I could clearly see, "PREMIER 1K." The scanner beeps and turns red. The GA says, "Are you willing and able to help in the emergency row?" He grunts and jogs into the jetway.
GA looks at him and rolls her eyes as he rushes to the plane. She then shrugs her shoulders, looks at me, scans my BP, and says, "Thanks for being GS."

nomad420

Likewise.... I now just often board LAST. I check my bags, my sear of choice is exit row aisle, and my carry-on is usually just a small brief case that I usually need during the flight anyways. I know this bucks up against what some people would say is ideal but it has worked for me. I want to spend as little time in the metalic tube as possible.

tbuccelli

This is an issue with some seats, the electronics for chargers, etc take up quite a bit of space. Hence the reason the person stated Aisle. Windows / Middles may have more under-seat room.

ofcourseduh

Just did a SFO-KIX (Osaka) and HND (Tokyo) - SFO

At SFO they never called 1K specifically, I hung around and wandered up -- and they said 'yes, you can board now'

At HND, they actually has a separate line -- and they specifically called up Global Services and 1K for that line. Although it seemed most GS just hung around like usual -- and got on first. Then once all the other pre-board groups were called, they let the "line" of 1K pre-board. So it was just like it has always been, except that there was a 1K line (with about 25 folks) that went ahead of Group 1.

mr8

Pre-boarding has been working for me at various airports, but had an interesting experience at IAH last night. My upgrade cleared on a SDC a few minutes before the flight boarded, so I asked the gate agent if I could just wait around there to pre-board when I went to pickup my new boarding, but was strictly told that pre-board was for military and GS only and I would have to go to the back of the group 1 line.

IMO, it would be great if they would just print "pre-board" on boarding passes for GS/1K and pax with infants and pax with valid military papers/ID. Would make things easier for everyone including the gate agents who don't keep up with the airline's boarding processes...

YumYumcake

Flying SDF-IAH: Gate agent calls: "1K and Global Services"
The 1Ks rush the gate..

Sure, maybe I was the only GS on that flight but still..

TexasAggie02

DELee

Naw - it's just IAH...

David

JetAway

Saw a couple of people flash their Global Entry cards at SAT in an attempt to pre-board but the GA caught that mistake/ruse.

TexasAggie02

I've seen it a few times (never in SAT which is my home airport) but usually in IAH and it typically works - depends if the GA cares or not.

laxmillenial

Lol...should I ever drop below 1K I guess I know how to pre-board now.
Kinda sad, shouldn't GA's care about GS? Shouldn't that be one of the most important cares that they have? Apart from D-0 of course lol.

fumje

It seems like in this thread there's an implicit understanding that the D-0 push encourages GAs to rush through the group announcement. I can imagine that it does, in fact, encourage them to do so.

But does that way of calling groups actually speed up the boarding? Would we be best off having bum-rush boarding if all we care about is D-0?

IAH-OIL-TRASH

But they've started boarding 5 minutes earlier, so they have more than compensated for the extra time needed for the addition of the 1K subgroup pause. The same number of people are boarding the plane, so the only extra time should be that pause.